FLINT, MI -- Two Flint sisters opened a fashion
boutique in 2012 after coming up with the idea while working at a factory job in
Brighton -- and this weekend, for the second year in a row, they're using their
store to showcase fashion designers from around Genesee County.

Sisters Me'Juana and Marquitta Harris came up with the idea
for FAIM UP in 2006, while they were both working in a Brighton factory in
2006. They conceptualized FAIM -- Fashion And Intelligent Maintenance -- as a way
to "dress individuals not just physically, but mentally and emotionally,"
according to the company web site.

"It was a great idea that people would ask us about once we
put it out there. Once you put something out there, you have to do it," Me'Juana
said. "...We feel like fashion is every part of your life. Even the way you think
should be fashionable -- a great design for the way you act, project yourself
and the creativity you put into any part of your day."

They began doing events in 2011, and opened their store,
located on downtown Flint's South Saginaw Street, in December 2012. The store showcases and sells
clothing from Genesee County designers.

Last year, the Harrises threw the first March of FAIM, an
event to showcase area talent of all types: designers, musicians, poets,
entrepreneurs, and more. They made a free magazine to accompany the event, but decided
to focus on the event more this year.

"When we got the idea to physically do it and have people
come out and experience live, that trumps the magazine idea for us. You can
read a wonderful article, but once you see something, that puts you at a
different level of how you thought about it," Me'Juana Harris said.

Saturday's event on March 15 will have a children's fashion show and an
adult fashion show with designs from seven different clothing companies in Flint:
OIP (Originality Is Paradise), FAIMOUS Accessories, Fannie Lucille, Lighted
Righteous and The Dress House.

The event will also award the first I Am FAIMOUS Scholarship
to a high school senior, and give the I Am FAIMOUS Award to three community
entrepreneurs: Lavish Living CEO Ray Tyler, Tracy Palmer of Trendsetters
Productions and Victoria's Secret designer Tiffany Allen Cole.

"These are talented people in local communities that aren't
getting the platform to bring themselves out," Me'Juana Harris said. "That's what we
do in our store: we show people how they're already famous."